Father's Day!

We had an awesome time celebrating our fabulous Daddy on Father's day this year (although the entire day Aaliyah would yell "Happy Mudder's Day Daddy").

We started out by making him a big old omelet and potatoes for breakfast including his favorite dessert apple turnovers (that Aaliyah and I had made last week) and letting him eat in the bedroom. We played outside, went for a walk, and hung out as a family. We then gave Daddy his gifts and prepared lunch. The kids and I (and the help of two of our neighborhood friends) made pretzels that spelled out "Daddy", we ate little football shaped meatball sandwiches and played a "what kind of ice cream is it" game. Then for the afternoon Brian got to go play golf with a friend and have some quiet, peaceful time on Father's Day.

It was not hard at all to celebrate him & I hope we did a good job showing him how much he means to us. We are pretty lucky to have a Daddy like him!!!

Catching up

ok, ok, ok - so I know its been too long that I have posted. I have no good excuses - except life has been busy. Mulu is done with school which allows all three Johnson Kiddos to be home full time! We have been having an awesome time already doing summer stuff, with summer schedules and basically summer life.

So I have posts lined up ready to catch up (Aria's 9 month update, Father's Day, etc.)


Here is a photo of Mulu's Kindergarten program "The Three Piggy Opera" - toooooo cute. And although this photo does NOT show it, Mulu had a great time and did awesome - knowing all the songs and little had gestures that went with it.




















Aaliyah and Aria on our last day of just the girls - we're all really excited to get the summer to be with Mulu!



















For fun & to compare - here is a picture of Mulu on his first day of Kindergarten - before Aria was born, before he could read and do math, before he became the confident Kindergartner he is today.



















And Mulu's last day of Kindergarten - after a full year with an amazing teacher, sweet new friends and 9 months of being on his own during they day. He has absolutely blossomed this year & is very proud of himself (as he very well should be)



















And, of coarse, b/c Mulu got his picture taken in front of the tree - Aaliyah wanted to also - so here is Aaliyah on Mulu's last day of Kindergarten (in her Dora pjs)




















And Aria too - although she wasn't too sure about getting her feet into the dewy grass so early in the morning.

Memorial Day Weekend!

Over Memorial Day weekend our family traveled to Northern Wisconsin (way up in the north woods) to stay at our friends' cabin and visit Brian's family for his Grandmother's birthday. We stayed three nights and four days of laidback family time. We had a wonderful time - filled with fishing, bike riding, laid back meals, family naps and campfires - oh . . . and only a couple ticks - (my not so favorite part of the trip).


Here are Mulu & Aaliyah checking out the view from the deck soon after arriving at the cabin. (Aaliyah in her oh - so - rugged camping clothes - she is truly a girls' girl)


























Aria taking a quick nap after a long walk. She did so well being out of her normal elements - and loved being outside for most of the days.























Aaliyah very patiently fishing off of the pier. She had a plastic blue fish on the end of her line to be able to practice casting & would squeal "look I got a blue fish - I caught a blue fish!!!!" everytime she reeled it in. I thought she was kidding at first - but her excitement proved to be real and she seemed genuinely thrilled to have caught her blue plastic fish every time!























Here is Brian and Mulu working on his fishing line. Mulu actually had a hook on his and tried his hardest to get a fish - but besides a couple tree branches and his sister's fishing line, his hook stayed empty throughout our trip. I was pretty impressed with his patience - trying many times and always wanting to go out & do some more fishing. Maybe next time Mama or Daddy will remember to get some bait before we get up in the middle of nowhere (yes - poor guy did all that fishing with nothing to offer the fish!)
























The Johnson Kiddos at their cutest!




















Brian and Aaliyah snuggling during our family naps - definitely key to keeping everyone smiling and calm during our weekend! Too bad we can't implement them into each of our days . . .





















Aria's turn!



















Mulu reading his books while the others slept.




















Aaliyah (definitely our family dancing queen) groovin out while I was cooking dinner - I caught some of it on video for you to enjoy!